Once a school has made the decision to move ahead with writing a crisis management protocol, several common issues should be considered for inclusion.
Taking time to prepare for crisis situations before they happen can help school communities cope with serious problems. Nobody likes to talk about it, but the fact is that crisis situations can and do occur at schools. For example, if a school has over 2,000 students, the national statistics indicate that one student’s death is possible in any given year. How well the school is prepared to handle the situation can make a huge difference in how the students deal with the issues in both the short and long term.
There are any number of issues and events that can trigger a school initiating its crisis management plan. So, the first issues to consider should be who is authorized to declare an event as a crisis, and what kinds of events qualify as a crisis. Generally speaking, the principal or the counselor are usually the persons designated to declare a crisis; however, there should be backups identified in case the principal and counselor are out of the area. Triggering events usually revolve around a person’s death or serious injury or illness, such as the death of a student, the death of a student’s parent or sibling, or if a student is diagnosed with a terminal disease. A school might also declare a crisis if a student, parent or teacher is arrested, if there is a suicide or attempt, or if a local or national tragedy occurs.
Common Elements of a Crisis Management Plan
This is a short list of issues that should be considered for inclusion in a school’s crisis management plan:
Teachers should examine their students’ records immediately to determine if anyone has had a similar issue affect him or her and could be extremely influenced by the current crisis (recent parent death, cancer in the family, etc.). Teachers should identify those students to the school counselor at once.
Whoever speaks with the affected family first must ask the parents what information they want to become common knowledge and what information should remain confidential. This person should also ask for permission to inform the community.
When a crisis arises, a method of instant communication should be detailed. For example, teachers could be notified by a phone tree or email blast if the news arrives at night or over weekend, or by personal verbal message during the school day.
Plans should be established for informing the school population as quickly as possible to prevent the outbreak of rumors. Even if little or nothing can be disclosed at that point, bringing everyone together can have a calming effect.
Crisis Plan and Teachers as Resources
The crisis management plan should identify certain teachers and counselors to be designated as resources and be positioned in areas away from the classes for the students who need to talk. There should be plans to have their classes covered. If possible, refreshments, light food, and juice should be available with these teachers. They should also have a phone available for student calls, and have a large stock of tissues available.
Follow-up meetings should be announced as a way of telling the students that they will be kept informed as the crisis plays out.
